Kym Robinson. Draft 1.
A man begs for the life of his child, the boys body broken and beyond recognition. The sweet smile no longer present, his face smashed and bloodied not even a death mask could be made in his honour, instead a limp corpse rests heavily in his father's arms. No amount of tears, prayers or pain will ever bring back that child or the millions of others that have over the years suffered this fate. And as the family pray to the heavens and tears share the Earth with the blood of pure innocence, tomorrows headlines will read... "Coalition bombs accidentally kill civilians, collateral damage is a necessary part of War." Meanwhile the air power of the 'Free' world will find another target to 'hit'.
His brother watches on, young and impressionable as his eldest sibling sobs heavily and his young Nephew is forever lost. He looks to the sky sad and frightened, soon the cold tears of sorrow will boil into the lava of vengence. His young fertile mind once free of hatred now instilled with a new purpose, REVENGE. And what was simply a teenage boy, a son of a farmer is now tommorows 'Terrorist.' Just like those of yesterday, so shall tomorrow cycles of bloody consequence go on. Short term memories will over look the ultimate cause and realities of every act committed and just how deep the roots of all those tree's that were planted by policy makers of the past so that we may bite down with grimace on the bitter, putrid fruits of today. So we shall sew more seeds and wait for them to grow tall and over shadow us then and it will be our children, who will explain to their own simply and ignorantly "They do this because they hate us."
Some distance away a woman her body soaked in pain lays idle staring at the ceiling her days are numbered but for her and the family stand by and watch her grimace in agony even with the pain suppressing medication, those days are none too soon enough. Cancer has savaged her body beyond the point of recovery all that she can hope for is death, the pain so constant that her tears no longer run down her puffy cheeks. With the greatest depths of courage she smiles with the sincere care that has defined her for all her life, with each family member that visits from her children to their own and with every medical staffer that comes by hourly she offers them a smile not of simple Thanks but also as her one last dogmatic stance in this World. Her one last symbol of her self. No matter how much pain she is suffering, she will do her best to defy it with all she can. Her smile.
Standing with its hands bloodied and its self importance smugly assured is the State, the collective entity once entrusted with the duty of protecting and serving us, all of us. It is the entity that through taxation and control funds every policy and every act, it is the entity that with every implementing action of those policies conducts it self as a representative of every one of us. The State in the end has the omnipotent absolute power that appoints itself with the determination of who shall live and who shall die. Not in so few words, but in the actions that it commits within it's own borders and across the sea's in far away lands. It is why vicious and brutal acts of terror are committed against our citizens, because in a democracy we elect our leaders and thus WE are accountable for EVERY action taken by the State. It is a brutal and horrible cycle of revenge thrown back and forth.
With another nation struggling with it's own identity those powerful and 'free' nations stand proud and mighty with sabres in hand rattling with self righteous authority, their collective voices command to the power base within that nation with self appointed absolute decree that all must be obeyed. The Gunboat diplomacy of the past has given way to the cruise missile age, to the sanctions and command of every height of the strategic spectrum. Like a self assured child standing above an ant hill, determined to set his own agenda on the ignorant ant's he has his arsenal of destruction ready to fix the societal structure of that part of his World.
That is why some nations and it's people those 'guilty' and those innocent suffer this wrath and others are ignored or disregarded even as those regimes commit with impunity such tragic and vile acts against their own people. Why the 'free' powers struggle with the definition of genocide for one to justify its own mission and disregard the very real ACT of genocide by another to put down it's own unwillingness to intervene, even long after it has set the precedent for such interventions.
The consequences are always present no matter how much the attempt in name is to be surgical or precise. The blow back always goes on, the perpetual cycle of hatred for them and them for us only grows and in the end and in the beginning it usually in some way is a symbiotic alliance that sparked and snuffed it all. The continuous intervention and establishment of regimes in other parts of the World and should those regimes and governments either fail or no longer serve the intended purpose regime change is justifiable policy, we after all must spread democracy. The cycle will go on so long as We continue to interfere and manipulate what happens over there.
And with this intent to fix and cure the World, well very specific parts of it, we mash with the might of a military no longer fixed for the defence of it's own citizens but intent on establishing a quasi Empire and a dynasty of 'Free' nations. It is not in the over throw of dictators or leaders that are not pro Us, but it is in the blatant disregard for the human beings that live in these nations. It is for 'their own good' we are told or as Madeline Albright once said with bloody confidence, "WE think the price is worth it." When asked about the half a million dead Iraqi CHILDREN killed during the 1990's by the US Government. They pay in blood, tears and tragedy and we gain in control and a mission statement. Some price indeed.
And on the home front many will stand by and say with absolute conviction, better THEM than US or... "The only good German, Jap, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, Turk, Arab, Iraqi, Afghans, etc Is a dead one." That naturally includes non combatants from child to mother, grand father to grand son. One generations callous and cold collective clumping of an entire nation, people or race... or religion is easy for contemporary minds to swallow the carnage and MURDER of these people. It is only with subsequent generations when the blood has dried, the bones slowly dust, buildings are rebuilt and the victims names lost that we appreciate that Germans, the Japanese or Vietnamese are no different to who we are. They never were any different to you and I, not then and certainly not now.
It is the very same mindset which with cold, calculating and educated expertise that can disregard human life so easily, will deny ones own right to take their life as they suffer in un imaginable pain. The very same elite that sit in high office and concoct laws and policies that often lead in death, theft, destruction and tragedy will sit idle as a person waits in pain to die. What moral authority do they invoke when a human being wishes to slip away from the sustained torment of what few and horrible days that they have left on this Earth ?
The person that is doomed by all calculations, who has no chance of recovery who is being kept alive for those last few moments not in bliss and celebration of their life, to be spent with their loved ones but at a great physical and mental toll to not only themselves but to family and no doubt those that care for them. What absolute lunacy and sadistic delight does this Omniscient entity have in determining that a long term sufferer of such should continue to go on suffering because this is how it should be ?
And yet should a medical practitioner offer those suffering an out, a morphine induced slide away from the pain into a darkness of peace, then they are tried and condemned as murderers.
And yet we do not scream murderer to those brave airmen that fire bombed Dresden killing so many thousands of civilians in a known refugee massing point, a city agreed to be a non military target. A city chosen simply to show to the Russians how devastating Allied air power can be. Or those few that dropped two atomic devices over two cities with very little military value and densely populated with unarmed masses of citizens. Where so many died and suffered immediately and for a long time after. These men are decorated heroes of a war, men that did great things to help end a struggle against 'Evil' enemies. And those innocent masses that were destroyed can be justified by simply saying... the War came to an end.
So we see heroes from the mass killings of civilians and villains from Angels of death who follow through the very last wishes of those suffering. It is the State, that sits in judgement and executor of these determinations.
Does this mindset stem from the legal roots in some archaic relationship with our culture of theology, where we must abide by the Laws of God. But then, how can this same entity so easily and without remorse commit MURDER and justify it with the age old 'the end justifies the means" argument. Except there is no end, and justified to whom ? Self, 'God' or those hence that will look back to us of today.
So with the ultimate hypocrisy that the State can unashamedly and with no apology force upon all of us we must watch others suffer and those of us with a sincere heart will in some way have to shoulder this burden. Because WE are doing this. This is done by us, apathy is no excuse. Closing ones eyes does not drone out the screaming plea of those suffering. Decreeing that it is unpatriotic to think and say such things is anything but contray to what that word means. Patriotism is doing what is best for the Nation. Not the Government.
The question you should answer is this, can you justify murder ?
And then as we know all to well those political leaders that break and make policy do actually justify the 'killing' of innocent and non combatants. And remember in nearly all cases of modern 'Warfare' more civilians are killed than actual combatants. What of those by 'Friendly' forces in these modern conflicts of Nation Building, does killing those which we are supposedly there to help justify this apparent noble cause ?
And how is it that one who is suffering in such pain, waiting for death to mercifully take them away can not take their own life to alleviate this horrible limbo ?
And so the ultimate weight rests painfully on our shoulders. This is done in our name. With our capital. With our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers as both victim and agents of the States will. With us as the ultimate benefactor of every consequence on our moral character. Will you continue to sit idle or will you care enough to begin to question ?
Remember that it has through this century that has just past that more people died at the hands of Government than any other means. No malicious corporation or perverted theology but Government, elected and despotic has gone forth and destroyed more lives with the self righteousness that only the elite seem to afford themselves. So long as they grant themselves with no checks and balances in place, the moral virtue of determining what is truly right and wrong then innocence will die and innocence will be denied the right to end it.
Apparently it is for us to give them that authority....
Question authority, because you are the highest authority when it comes to your own person.
Does the end EVER justify this ?
If they were your babies, would you be happy to pay the price for some one elses
policies ?
Should She have the right to end her torment ?
You tell yourself.... you tell Them the answer in your own time.
Kym Robinson, 19 September 2011.
